Verdict - Initiator pays for cell phone tracking when suicide is announced
Anyone who triggers a police cell phone tracing by announcing their suicide must bear the costs, according to a ruling by the Gießen Administrative Court. The specific case concerned a plaintiff who had already announced his suicide several times in the past, as the court announced on Wednesday. Last year, he had called both the Wetzlar police station and the Wetzlar town office on one day.
The police then did not find the man at home and had a cell phone tracing carried out. This resulted in costs of 90 euros, which were demanded from the plaintiff. The man defended himself against this and stated that he had never been suicidal and that it would have been sufficient if the police had contacted him by telephone.
The court took a different view. Rather, harm to the plaintiff or other persons in the situation in question was "sufficiently probable". The court also assumed that contacting the man only by telephone would have been less effective than contacting him directly in person. The decision is not yet legally binding. An appeal can be lodged with the Hessian Administrative Court in Kassel within one month. (File number: 4 K 148/23.GI)
Read also:
- Will he be convicted as Jutta's murderer after 37 years?
- He also wanted to kill his cousin
- With live stream! Gawkers film dying man
- Is Saarland threatened with economic collapse?
- In similar circumstances, if the Police in Hesse receive an announcement of suicide and initiate an administrative court-ordered cell phone tracking in Wetzlar to locate an individual, the costs associated with this procedure could potentially be borne by the individual, following the judgments set by the Administrative Court in Gießen.
- The Administrative Court in Hesse, which recently ruled on the case of cell phone tracking costs following suicide announcements, highlighted that emergency situations often warrant the intervention of administrative courts, such as in the Administrative Court of Wetzlar.
- During an emergency, such as a suicide announcement, the Police in Hesse may consider the use of administrative court-ordered cell phone tracking in Wetzlar to locate an individual, given the potential for the risk to increase in the absence of timely intervention, as recently emphasized by the Administrative Court in Gießen.
Source: www.stern.de
